Jaguar XJR-12

Details

Jaguar’s assault on the 1990 World Sportscar and IMSA Championships was to be spearheaded by the turbocharged V6 XJR-11s and XJR-10s but quick as they were they had proved too fragile for the long distance races. For the 12 hour race at Sebring and the two 24 hour races at Daytona and Le Mans it was decided to enter V12 engined cars. A new design, the XJR-12 was laid down the chassis of which was an update on Tony Southgate’s successful XJR-9 chassis which enabled TWR to modify three of the older cars as well as building the only two brand new XJR-12s; 12-C-190(this car) & 12-C-290.

Chassis 190 was shaken down at Silverstone by Andy Wallace and the first race was Le Mans in June. Crewed by Davy Jones, Michel Ferte and Elisio Salazar, #190 lined up 7th on the grid, the fastest of the four car Jaguar team. The 7.4 litre 750bhp V12 topped 220mph on the Mulsanne in spite of the new chicanes and lapped at nearly 140mph. Running well up for the first half of the race but on Sunday morning a long pitstop for repairs to the nose and brakes cost it time and subsequent stops for the same problems dropped it down the order to 12th and at midday it was retired.

That was the only outing for #190 in 1990 and in 1991 it was again used for the long distance races at Daytona and Sebring Driven by Kenny Acheson, Eddie Cheever, John Nielsen, Raul Boesel and Davy Jones.
Final outing was the 1993 Daytona 24 hours driven by Scott Goodyear, Scott Pruett and Davy Jones after which #190 was retired to the TWR Museum.

In 2003 XJR-12/190 was bought from the museum and has been regularly raced in the historic Group C series and is also one of the most popular entries at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

As far as we can ascertain, J12-C-190 has never suffered serious accident damage and is offered for sale as an original car.